Cinemascope - This month's silver screen stars

October 2014

Having a reputation for being belligerent conquerors and pirates, the Vikings are quite a suitable representation of the Aries archetype. In the historical action film “Northmen: A Viking Saga” a boatload of these fierce warriors is stranded on Scotland’s coast after a vicious storm destroyed their ship. Fighting for survival their only chance is to cross the unfamiliar and hostile land and reach a faraway Viking stronghold while, to make matters worse, the King of Alba has them hunted by his most feared mercenaries.

Taurus

The characters in the German film „Tour de Force“ experience the Taurus-Scorpio-duality between the physical pleasures of life and the pain of mortality with all senses. Fatally ill Hannes goes on a bicycle trip with his wife and friends. Only when they’re already on the road most of them learn that they are headed to Belgium because Hannes is going to claim his right to die and make use of the possibility of medically assisted suicide there. After the initial shock the friends decide to make this last trip a great celebration of life – resulting not only in evening feasts and carousals and rollicking mud-fights…

Gemini

Interesting locations, an amicably and long divorced middle-aged couple, who was just cheated out of their retirement money, the planning and executing of a diamond heist as a provision for old age – such are the mixed ingredients for the comedy “The Love Punch”. With a lot of banter and some allusions to his role as James Bond Pierce Brosnan and the witty and eloquent Emma Thompson try to follow up the far too big footsteps of caper-classics like “The Pink Panther” and “A Fish Called Wanda”.

Cancer

Struggling actor Aidan Bloom has a loving but tired wife, two kids, a nerdy brother and now a father who is battling cancer and can no longer pay for the kids’ private Jewish school. Even the Rabbi refuses to help and tells Aidan to get a proper job… So, when things get tough, he retreats into his fantasy world where he imagined himself as a superhero when he was a teenager. “Wish I Was Here” is a somewhat bittersweet comedy-drama about emotional turmoil, failure, pain and loss, but also about parenting and the extensive process of growing up.

Leo

A characteristic line from his great hit song “Sex Machine” suggests the direction the life of soul legend James Brown took and sets the appropriate title for the biopic celebrating the “Godfather of Soul”: “Get On Up” portrays Brown’s rise from a background of poverty and petty crime to his first musical experience with “The Gospel Starlighters” and eventually to international fame as the highly praised “Godfather of Soul”. It’s the story of a charismatic musician, whose passionate shows and exceptional music will always have a unique place in music history.

Virgo

“Gone Girl” is a perfectly crafted thriller (David Fincher`s sun-sign is Virgo) with a sobering and somewhat cynical look on a culture of perfectionism: Perfect Amy, who since her early childhood was the inspiration for and subject of her perfect parents’ bestselling books, grows up under the eyes of an audience happy to buy into this ideal world, only to become a faultless young woman looking for the right husband to have a perfect marriage. Meeting and marrying Nick at first seems to fulfil this aspiration flawlessly but then there are sophisticated deceptions, and a perfidious plan for a perfect murder unfolds right under the watchful and scrutinizing eyes of the media which are fabricating their own perfect version of a marriage gone wrong…

Libra

The romantic comedy “Posthumous” is set in Berlin’s art scene: A struggling artist realizes how erroneous reports about his assumed death result in increasing the success of his art work, which suddenly achieves high prices on the market. To continue enjoying this unexpected prosperity he poses as his own brother and then, at his own retrospective, meets a sceptical journalist who is suspicious of the whole story. As they’re getting to know each other despite of obvious impediment romance starts to blossom…

Scorpio

“Borgman” is a sinister and weird Dutch film about madness and menace invading an outwardly safe and sound upper-class world. The title character Camiel Borgman lives in the woods, hidden in an underground cavity like two other woodsmen. During the first scenes of the movie three armed men stalk the woods and chase Borgman out of his hideout. When in his subsequent search for the possibility to take a bath Borgman knocks at the door of a wealthy family, the house owner initially turns him away. Borgman responds by insisting that he knows the man’s wife, what leads to a sudden eruption of violence. Manipulating his way further into the family’s life Borgman and his helpers disturbingly debunk the unconscious and the suppressed behind the civil upper-class normality in a nightmarish and unsettling manner…

Sagittarius

The documentary “Yalom’s Cure” portrays the career of influential psychoanalyst, psychotherapist and writer Irvin Yalom, describing the evolution of his ideas about happiness and his methods for being happier in life. The famous therapist considers his role in working with a client to be the role of a “guide on this voyage of self-exploration“, elaborating that a good therapist “fights darkness and seeks illumination”. His remarks on human existence often have a philosophical implication, rooted deeply in humanism and creating meaning by life-affirming principles.

Capricorn

Robert Duvall and Robert Downey Jr. star in the father-son-drama “The Judge” focusing on the severe conflicts between a rather self-righteous and authoritative small-town judge and his troubled, estranged son who has become a clever and successful lawyer. After his wife’s passing, meeting his son Hank doesn’t soften the judge’s feelings and they part without friendliness. But only a day later the judge is accused of murdering a man who stood trial in his court and after some resistance he has to admit that accepting Hank as his lawyer could be his only chance. Questions of morality, righteousness, guilt, family hierarchy and relentless insensitivity come up when the two men struggle with their past while trying to solve the present problem.

Aquarius

“Pride” is a British comedy-drama based on actual events of unlikely solidarity between two very alien communities. When in 1984, under the harsh reign of the Thatcher government, British miners fighting for their jobs went massively on strike, a group of Lesbian and Gay activists who as a marginalized minority equally found themselves on unfriendly terms with Thatcher’s politics, collected donations at the Lesbian and Gay Pride march in London to support the miners. The film depicts the “culture clash” situations happening when the group travels to a small village in Wales to deliver the raised money personally…

Pisces

Born with sun in Virgo, musician, writer, actor and poet Nick Cave is the centre of the atmospheric and very Pisces-flavoured film “20,000 Days on Earth”, in which he shares with us his supposed daily routine for one day of his life. Reality and imagination, documentary and staged scenes blend into mesmerizing visuals, showing 24 fictitious hours of the 20,000th day in the life of a cultural icon, who dives deeply into the collective unconscious in order to describe forms of transformation – in dialogue with the psychiatrist, in imagined conversation with companions as well as in his own creative process and, of course, in the transformation on stage.

Vesna
Ivkovic studied literature and linguistics, sociology, philosophy and
history and as well took a profound interest in psychology, mythology
and different belief systems. Along the way she also explored various
paths of body awareness such as the martial arts of Kung Fu, Dance,
Yoga, Qi Gong and several other methods of body work and motion arts.
In 1993 she discovered astrology as an instrument of knowledge and graduated
in 2004 in Markus Jehle's and Petra Niehaus' master class at the Astrology
Center Berlin. You can find out more about the author and her work on
her own website www.astrosemiotics.de

The Cinemascope is meant to give an overview of current movies and their main themes from an astrosemiotical perspective (i.e.: regarding film as semiotic system and translating it into the astrological semiotic system). A well made movie not only has a story and a certain theme, it also provides a special atmosphere, a certain feeling and it draws us into its very own world. This basic quality that is contrived through characters, plot, setting and many other components also translates into one or more astrological principles. Quite simply: a fast-paced action-flick confronts us with plain Aries energy, a horror-movie evokes Scorpio-like abysmal depths and fears etc. We step out of the theatre and – if the film succeeded in sucking us in – find ourselves dwelling on and engaging in that special energetic quality.

AstroWiki
by Astrodienst is a free encyclopedia of astrology. It collects the knowledge
of the astrological community and makes it available to everybody. The Wiki`s
cadre consists of two astrological lexica.

As one of the largest astrology portals WWW.ASTRO.COM offers a lot of free features on the subject. With high-quality horoscope interpretations by the world's leading astrologers Liz Greene, Robert Hand and other authors, many free horoscopes and extensive information on astrology for beginners and professionals, www.astro.com is the first address for astrology on the web.